LPL Sunday: Round 7! And round 6 recap

A band of Martian rebels with walker support.

After loosing against Bugsda last round I'm back to winning again this round with my newly painted "Reds".

The infantry are Sahadeen from Rebel Minis and the walkers are DIMOGs from Khurasan (with converted drivers). All reasonably nice models, although the infantry are not as clean as the UNSC minis from GZG or the heavy infantry from Blue Moon. There are quite a lot of greeblies and they were trickier to paint. The DIMOGs are nice sculpts, but speaking of greeblies... the driver! Phew! He's just one giant greeble isn't he?! Khurasan does amazing stuff but I was a bit dissapointed with the driver. Good thing is you don't see much of him when he's seated.

Something I tried out when painting these guys was using a regular pencil to make the chipped paint effect at the end of the rocket launcher barrel. I thought it might not look metallic enough to actually read to the naked eye but it worked really well and I'm looking forward to trying it again in the future.

I went up against Tomsche and his Sons of the Sand (with a big nasty sand golem!) this round and in the end I won with a bit of a margin. If the trend continues I'll loose rounds seven and (of!) nine but win rounds eight and ten. Hehe!

Some of my favourite entries this round were:

• Big Trouble in Little Fishbowl - Really cool minis (love diving helmet!), well painted and a beautiful composition!
• Field Trip with Miss Bachaus - I haven't seen the film(s) but Hammer's produced an awesome entry!
• Frontier Men - Once again Frank has put together the perfect nature scene.
• "You have 20 Seconds to Comply" - But I had to vote for the ED-209. :)
• Larkhall Police Lieutenant Omega Fives Riot Squad - Excellent use of digital camo and lighting effects.
• Agents of Evil - Robo-Hitler!

For round 7 I'm fiiiinally getting some starships into the league! Unfortunately only one is newly painted, but I think you'll recognize her...

See my entry and all the other great stuff over at the Lead Adventure Forum. And don't forget to vote!

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New Painting Paradigm!

So... just now, out of the blue I decided to try something new painting-wise. I usually don't touch my minis for ages and then I sit down for a marathon session and do everything. And while this kind of works it can be a long time between these painting frenzies. So from now on I'm going to try and sneak in at least 15 minutes of painting every day!

It's not a long time, but probably enough to do one step in the process and if I manage to do it every day it'll soon add up. I'm not sure how well this strategy would work if you had hordes of things to paint (say, an entire 40k or WHFB army), but when you're mostly moving about in the skirmish region like I am I think it can work wonders! For example, my current project (besides the LPL) is Infinity and since I'm mostly painting one mini at the time 15 minutes can go a surprisingly long way. Probably enough to go from basecoat to final highlights in one area at least.

Today I've been prepping my Yu Jing and I'll start for real on my Zhanshi tomorrow. This'll be interesting!

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LPL Sunday: Round 6! And round 5 recap

See! My gears aren't forgotten!

After last round's narrow victory I went back to loosing again this week. Hehe! The theme for round 5 was Africa and I had nothing. I really don't want to get any models that I won't be able to use for gaming later and since I'm mostly a sci fi guy this made things kind of hard. However, I came up with the pretty cool idea to get "Crusties" from GZG and make a District 9 themed entry. However, just as I was about to order I realized it was March 1st and Jon had closed the store for the upcoming update. Arhg!!

So... to at least make a nod to the theme I decided to base my gears as I'd always planned to make them deserty anyway and then snap a picture with the Pyramids in the background. It felt bit plain though so I sat down and painted a squad of infantry as well, and they really pulled the whole thing together. Also I'm really satisfied with them and I'm definitely going to paint the rest in the near future. Then it's only the last two Cheetah's and my small army is done! This is the cool thing about LPL; it makes you finish all that old stuff you have lying around.

Anyway, I went up against Bugsda, one of the true LPL heavyweights, and his "Prof Witchheimer up the Jungle". Although there were several positive comments aimed at my mechs (like Plynke's "this is the first time for me where a Bugsda entry isn't the automatic winner." which I thought was pretty funny) it was soon clear that I was going to loose. Bugsda's entry is very well painted and more importantly he stuck to the theme so I'm just glad I managed to put up a decent fight. In the end the votes were 161 vs 101.

Some other great entries this round:

• Lion Hunt - Frank's best entry so far I think. Just look at those lions! Probably my favourite entry this round.
• The Dawn of Man - Who can resist a 2001 reference? Not me.
• Meat's back on the menu - This entry was well painted but for me it was the composition that did it. It's very simple with only a white background, but I can definitely see the natives sneaking up on the intrepid explorers. Hehe!
• District 9 - Well, it seems like Pil had the same idea as me, although he converted his own 28mm prawns instead. Unfortunately the picture obscures the minis quite a bit, but for me it works anyway thanks to the concept. And the mech is awesome!

For round 6 I've finally painted some opponents for my Earth Sectorial Army; a squad Mars rebels, aka Reds, with some walker support. I'm reasonably happy with how they turned out but I don't think they "pop" in the same way my EarthSec soldiers does. Oh well, we'll see how it turns out. See my entry and all the other great stuff over at the Lead Adventure Forum. And don't forget to vote!

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Switching size...

Never mind what's going on in the background...

Among all the 15mm stuff on my workspace some 28mm stuff has started to appear. Namely my Yu Jing minis! The other day I started putting together the ones I was most keen on painting and it was a pinning and greenstuffing extravaganza! Now, don't get me wrong, the Infinity miniatures are the best I've ever seen, bar none. Incredibly beautiful sculpts that rarely even need cleaning; the very miniscule mould lines are either in a flat area where you easily can file it away or run in a way that renders them invisible. Really amazing quality all around!

However, there are a lot of small parts; stuff like antennas, sensor booms, fins (yes, fins!), arms, swords and of course rifles that need assembling. Everything fits together perfectly, but to make a nice secure bond I've decided to pin almost everything and then use greenstuff where it connects to hide any gap that might still be there. So it's a bit time consuming but the end result is well worth it.

So far they're only basecoated black, but hopefully I'll be able to start actual painting even though the LPL is still going on (currently painting for round 6!). I'm thinking of a dark bluish-grey and off-white colour scheme for the hard armour pieces and then a kind of olive drabb for fatigues on the Zhanshis and the Tiger Soldiers. Hopefully this will give a hi-tech yet militaristic feel. We'll see...

Oh, and again, any advice on wheather to assemble the minis fully or leave some of the arms off to make sure I can reach everywhere? Currently I'm thinking of leaving them off and painting to a medium level, then glue them on and finish the highlighting.

And of course, the bases are just temporary. I'm getting urban ones from Antenocitis Workshop.

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Shooting Space

Just took a couple of test snaps of part of my UNSC fleet against a more cinematic background to see what it would look like (just for fun... you know, no special reason) and it is indeed rather tricky to photograph spaceship models well. I think the above shot is decent (considering what I have to work with), but it could be a lot better.

Bringing these models out reminded me of how much I like the Full Thrust range. I really should order some more UNSC stuff and some civilian ships when the store is back up.

That's all. Just wanted to share a space picture with you guys. :)

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LPL Sunday: Round 5! And round 4 recap

A recon element of the Earth Sectorial army.

Last round was a real nailbiter as I went up against Mancha's Mouse Patrol! I don't think we were ever more than eight or nine votes apart during the week and in the end I won with but a single vote, one more and it would have counted as a draw. Phew! Although I really liked the mice, I'm glad my 15mm guys finally managed a win.

The minis are UNSC marines from GZG (I'll insert a link later when the new online store is up) and they're great sculpts with loads of detail! The vehicle is the comanche MATV from Rebel Minis. I was actually slightly surprised at how rough a few parts of it were when I got it and I had to do some cleaning to get it in shape, however when painted you don't really see the flawed areas and it just looks beautiful! It also comes with some different weapon options and a small shield/turret as well and I had a hard time deciding if I should use that or not. In the end I went for the leaner look without the turret, but I'm not sure I made the right decision. What do you think:

Some of my favourite entries from round 4 was:

• Bamboo Raiders - Great painting and great minis.
• Nemo's Army -  Two words: Crab. Tank.
• Imperial Escort - Although not to scale, some really nicely painted Star Wars ships.
• Ah, with ever anxious heart, the blossoms are falling... - My absolute favourite entry this round! Maybe not the best painted, but the composition and those sakura trees made me melt.
• Die human scum! - Some awesome sci fi right here! Made me want to get some AE Bounty minis.
• Wolf Pack - Definitely an underrated entry. Probably because of its "mundanity" compared to the terminators. But have a look at the painting again... that fur is amazing!
• 'Relax men, it's only a couple of gau...' - Again, maybe not the best painted, but Andys scratch built bio-titan just looks awesome! Good work man!

In round 5 I'm unfortunately missing out on both the newly painted team bonus and the additional Africa theme bonus. I have a strict rule not to paint anything that I won't be able to use later for gaming, and since I'm mostly a sci fi kind of guy the Africa theme was tough. What I really wanted to do was get some non-prawn "crusties" from GZG and make a small District 9 scene. But I was a bit slow and the GZG store is now temporarily closed for updates. Bummer.

So instead I decided to enter a few of my Northern Guard gears, and to spice it up I painted a squad of infantry as well! They turned out great, so I'm very happy in any case. See my entry and all the other great stuff over at the Lead Adventure Forum. And don't forget to vote!

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Gearing up for Infinity

Wow! The LPL really sucks up a lot of time! Although I think I'm able to put these entries together fairly quickly it still takes time away from other stuff. Like blogging. Hehe!

You might have seen that I've changed one of my current projects from WFRP3 to Infinity (check up top if you haven't). It's not that we're done with WFRP (although the Gathering Storm campaign is about to wrap up) but simply that from now on I'll try to keep my current projects more, well... current! The other stuff will move to the "Backburner" that I'll put up in the right hand column. You will see some other changes as well soon, like a page for my 15mm Mars stuff etc. If everything goes according to plan the Current Projects will change quite often.

Anyway, Infinity. I got the big box of stuff that me and a few friends ordered during Beasts of War's Infinity Week (which was a really great event! If you have any interest in Infinity I urge you to check it out!) and the miniatures are just as nice in person as they are in pictures. Lots of small fiddly pieces though, so prepare to pin everything! I also ordered some additional stuff from Maelstrom games, namely two Tiger Soldiers and a Karakuri and I've been working on them tonight after work. You can see the Karakuri in the pic above.

I still haven't decided if I should put the minis together before or after painting. If I do it after I can get to all of those hard to reach places but on the other hand, in some weird way it might actually be easier to paint them if I do put them together. I don't know. Any Infinity vets out there care to make a suggestion?

Oh well, I just wanted to make a short, non-LPL post. Hehe!

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LPL Sunday: Round 4! And round 3 recap

My Earth Sectorial Army Ma.K Heavy Infantry

In round 3 I continued with my little 15mm Mars theme and submitted the power armoured infantry seen above. The minis are from Blue Moon Manufacturing and it was love at first sight so I actually bought 30 of the little buggers. They are good sculpts and remind me of the Japanese Maschinen Krieger model line. Also all 10 are actually unique which is kind of cool. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, but I'd like to make the next batch with a kind of tan/terracotta camo and see how it turns out.

My opponent this time around was Pil and his creepy Nightmare Legion, a very characterful entry! I actually believe that's why I lost; in my (very personal) opinion my guys are slightly better painted, but Pil's have more character. I'm wondering if it would have been smarter for me not to include the entire squad but just five or six instead. The end result was 232 vs 134.

Some other great entries this round:

• They Came from the Frozen Wastes - Just great theme and painting.
• Withering Plague - Great painting combined with those really increadible water effects got my vote. Probably my favourite entry this round.
• Scary Monsters - Excellent mix of good sculpts and solid painting skills. Love it!
• Inmates of the Asylumn - Kind of like scary monsters, but more disturbing. Hehe!
• Trolls... in... Space! - Great minis and very impressive painting on the.
• Keep it in the Family - Very nicely painted mix of old and new Space Hulk miniatures. And those bases!
• Batteries not Included - Retro robot goodness and mad scientists!

Round 4 is more Mars madness from my part and it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. My 15mm stuff so far has been well received but hasn't won yet. Maybe third time is the charm! See them and all the other entries at the Lead Adventure Forum. And don't forget to vote!

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